No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington

A native of Birmingham, Alabama who overcame the racism of the Civil Rights era to become a brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Rice distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. Once Bush was elected, she served as his chief adviser on national-security issues – a job whose duties included harmonizing the relationship between the Secretaries of State and Defense.

Decision Points

Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America's 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.

Hard Choices

Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed.

Bridget Jones's Diary

A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? The third installment in Bridget Jones' journey, Mad About the Boy, will be out in October 2013.

Richard Nixon: The Life

Richard Nixon opens with young navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. It is a stunning overture to John A. Farrell's magisterial portrait of a man who embodied postwar American cynicism.

Diana: Her True Story - in Her Own Words

The sensational biography of Princess Diana, now revised to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. When Diana: Her True Story - in Her Own Words was first published in 1992, it forever changed the way the public viewed the British monarchy.

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama

Barack Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted the little-known state senator from Illinois into the national spotlight. Three months later Obama would win election to the US Senate; four years later he would make history as America's first black president. Now, at the end of his second presidential term, David J. Garrow delivers the most compelling and comprehensive biography ever written of Obama in the years preceding his presidency.

Casino Royale: James Bond, Book 1

For James Bond and the British Secret Service, the stakes couldn't be higher. 007's mission is to neutralize the Russian operative Le Chiffre by ruining him at the baccarat table, forcing his Soviet masters to "retire" him. When Le Chiffre hits a losing streak, Bond discovers his luck is in - that is, until he meets Vesper Lynd, a glamorous agent who might yet prove to be his downfall. This audiobook includes an exclusive bonus interview with Dan Stevens.

The Aeneid

The Aeneid represents one of the greatest cultural and artistic achievements of Western Civilization. Within the brooding and melancholy atmosphere of Virgil's pious masterpiece lies the mythic story of Aeneas and his flight from burning Troy, taking with him across the Mediterranean the survivors of the Greek onslaught. Aeneas, after many travails and adventures, including a love affair with Dido Queen of Carthage and a visit to the underworld to see his father, ends up in Italy.

Henry VIII: King and Court

This magnificent biography of Henry VIII is set against the cultural, social and political background of his court - the most spectacular court ever seen in England - and the splendour of his many sumptuous palaces. An entertaining narrative packed with colourful description and a wealth of anecdotal evidence, but also a comprehensive analytical study of the development of both monarch and court during a crucial period in English history.

Lee, the founding father of modern Singapore and its prime minister from 1959 to 1990, has honed his wisdom during more than fifty years on the world stage. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming Singapore into a Western-style economic success, he offers a unique perspective on the geopolitics of East and West. American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama have welcomed him to the White House.

The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.

Johnny Carson

From 1962 until 1992, Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show and permeated the American consciousness. In the ’70s and ’80s he was the country’s highest-paid entertainer and its most enigmatic. He was notoriously inscrutable, as mercurial (and sometimes cruel) off-camera as he was charming and hilarious onstage. During the apex of his reign, Carson’s longtime lawyer and best friend was Henry Bushkin, who now shows us Johnny Carson with a breathtaking clarity and depth that nobody else could.

Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's visionary vice chairman and Warren Buffett's indispensable financial partner, has outperformed market indexes again and again, and he believes any investor can do the same. His notion of "elementary, worldly wisdom" - a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management - allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment.

A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. The rules, policies, and institutions that have guided the world since World War II have largely run their course. Respect for sovereignty alone cannot uphold order in an age defined by global challenges from terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons to climate change and cyberspace. Meanwhile, great power rivalry is returning. Weak states pose problems just as confounding as strong ones.

Dwayne Eberlein says:"I look at the world politic and how we got here"

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Changed History

On the 50th anniversary of Churchill's death, Boris Johnson celebrates the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. Taking on the myths and misconceptions along with the outsized reality, he portrays - with characteristic wit and passion - a man of contagious bravery, breathtaking eloquence, matchless strategizing, and deep humanity.

Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy

President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters—presenting his ideas on restoring economic growth, energy, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and financial responsibility, and offering a plan to get us "back in the future business".

Publisher's Summary

Tony Blair is a politician who defines our times. His emergence as Labour Party leader in 1994 marked a seismic shift in British politics. Within a few short years, he had transformed his party and rallied the country behind him, becoming prime minister in 1997 with the biggest victory in Labour’s history, and bringing to an end 18 years of Conservative government. He took Labour to a historic three terms in office as Britain’s dominant political figure of the last two decades.

A Journey is Tony Blair’s firsthand account of his years in office and beyond. Here he describes for the first time his role in shaping our recent history, from the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death to the war on terror. He reveals the leadership decisions that were necessary to reinvent his party, the relationships with colleagues including Gordon Brown, the grueling negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, the implementation of the biggest reforms to public services in Britain since 1945, and his relationships with leaders on the world stage. He analyzes the belief in ethical intervention that led to his decisions to go to war - most controversially of all, in Iraq.

A Journey is a book about the nature and uses of political power. In frank, unflinching, often wry detail, Tony Blair charts the ups and downs of his career to provide insight into the man as well as the politician and statesman. He explores the challenges of leadership, and the ramifications of standing up, clearly and forcefully, for what one believes in. He also looks ahead, to emerging power relationships and economies, addressing the vital issues and complexities of our global world.

Few British prime ministers have shaped the nation’s course as profoundly as Tony Blair, and his achievements and his legacy will be debated for years to come. Here, uniquely, we have his own journey, in his own words.

However it is far easier to accept these judgments when they come directly from the man who was, after all, leader of one of the world???s great powers, the United Kingdom, during such a historically significant window of time. This is a book that thoroughly transcends partisan politics. It helps the listener understand the complexities of leadership and realpolitik in our time, at least as Tony Blair saw it. More importantly it is a book about relations and how they are managed at this strategic level. The listener is taken through a first-person account of a range of issues starting with the Royal Family over the death of Lady Diana, and with Heads of State and the UN over the catastrophe in Kosovo, with Sierra Leone???s transition from war to peace, the robust relationship with US President George W. Bush following 9/11 - and the politics of moving into war and a nation-building role in Afghanistan and Iraq; and then dealing with terrorism in his own city of London. This is powerful, serious and thought provoking stuff that should not suffer the indignity of being thought of along party political lines. Naturally it can???t all be about international events, and it would be impractical for Tony Blair to write an autobiography without dealing with domestic political issues, especially the troubled relationship with Gordon Brown. However these issues are dealt with in a way that is not at all onerous for listeners from outside the UK and actually provides an interesting perspective on politics generally, that politically savvy listeners from many other countries will find much to identify with. Finally, Blair makes no attempt to disguise areas that he felt were not his proudest moments, and this balanced approach lends an essential credibility to his story that would severely degrade the worth of this work if it were not present.

What a wonderful opportunity to hear first hand what it is to be a world leader from the world leader himself. The book is many things. It is a study in the qualities of leadership. It is humorous and at times painfully personal and touching. It provides an intimate glimpse of the personalities other important world leaders. It is a lesson in the recent history of british politics and world affairs.

In the opening chapter of this book, I immediately realized this book was going to be an entirely different experience. Hearing Tony Blair read aloud about just how starkly (and secretly) terrified he was upon winning his initial landslide election was honest and thrilling. When he describes his initial meeting with the queen (‘You are my tenth prime minister. Winston Churchill was my first’) you can’t help but grin as you gain the vicarious feeling of what it must have been like to assume the reins of power.

As the book unfolds, Blair does not lose his way. He continues to articulate both the amusing side of life as a world leader (The time his son got drunk and was arrested on the eve of his big speech on antisocial behavior) as well as articulate in clear detail his controversial and visionary decisions (Why Iraq? Why Afghanistan? How did New Labor come to be?) I’ve never heard of any other case where a world leader took the time to give you such a person tour of their time in power.

By the end of the book, I came away with a few confident conclusions. 1) Tony Blair is a deep and nuanced thinker, open to new ideas and able to clearly formulate a vision for leadership in the 21st century. 2) If you think you have all the answers on what ought to have been done over the last 10 years, it is a bit trickier than you might imagine. 3) Tony Blair is on my top 10 list of people I’d love to have a beer with and knowing that is not likely to happen I was so glad I listened to this book.

I enjoyed this. Mr Blair reads the book in a way that is easy on the ear. Even if one is not aware of the main characters that he talks about he writes in a style that gives one a sense of politics involved.

I've not read or listened to many auto-biographies before. Tony Blair's is a fascinating account of his as Prime Minister. Being in the US, I don't pretend to know the people or issues in British politics - about all we hear about is the PM and the royal family. That also meant I had little bias about what was said.

It was interesting to see his thought processes throughout. He was convinced of the correctness of bringing New Labor policies into the UK. I suppose that's the one weakness of the book as well: with the exception of Iraq, there's little hindsight on the decisions he made. He pats himself on the back a lot with the assumption of his correctness. All of the ideas seem to be his as well - I can't recall any instance where he credited someone else with an idea that he subsequently took up and ran with. In that respect, the book appears a bit too self-indulgent.

On Iraq, he spends a lot of time justifying his decision - it's probably the most interesting part of the book. Here, he delves into why he thought the UK needed to be involved. He thought the Americans too rash, the Europeans too timid. With all the faults exposed in hindsight, he spends a lot of time discussing how he agonized over the decisions. Again, it was an interesting overview, but I wish he he done that more with other topics. The fact that he didn't makes it seem almost spin-like.

Still, as I said previously, the first-hand account of his develepment and decisions make this a very interesting listen.

This book is an excellent and lively account of Tony Blair???s rise as leader and reformer of the British Labour party and his ten-year run as Prime Minister. He vividly describes his personal doubts, convictions and feelings at numerous points in that period. It is a revealing story of the never-ending pressures, demands, and difficult decisions faced by a modern political leader, The book also includes numerous insights and pithy remarks on modern-day politics and statecraft. Here is a good example: ???Politics today works by reference to paradigms of opinion that are formed, harden fast, and then become virtually unchallengeable. People have a short time to reflect and consider; issues are weighed quickly; little care is put into what goes on the scales and so judgements are made with a speed and severity that a more deliberate process would eschew. Once such judgements are made, stories are written that tend to reinforce the judgement. Stories to the contrary are ignored, until eventually to challenge the judgements is deemed almost delusional. Balance is an alien concept in today???s world. It wants opinions that are certain and are made fast.???

I recall during the Iraq War that I felt the most articulate advocates of the US Administration???s policy were Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld and ??? Tony Blair. This book reinforces my view that the most articulate of the three was Blair.

I chiefly appreciate that Tony Blaire has engaged society and researched ways to improve society. Such are humans, that he deteriorates into a tale of self-justification, and intolerable excuses. I will never forgive, but such are us humans.